Blind to what is actually seen

5:24 PM,
Dec. 4, 2012

Written by

Leonard Pitts Jr.
Leonard Pitts Jr.

It is a kind of myopia that afflicts some of us whenever we gaze upon a dark-skinned man. It causes some of us to see things not there, and to miss things that are. Sometimes, it is fatal.

Such was the case for Amadou Diallo, the African immigrant who died in a hailstorm of gunfire in 1999 after police mistook his wallet for a gun.

We cannot yet know if black blindness was the cause of death for Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old black kid who was killed the night after Thanksgiving. Davis was shot by a 45-year-old white man, Michael David Dunn, who says he saw a rifle. At this writing, police have recovered no ...